Biography

05/29/1838 - 06/18/1892

1st Lieutenant James Smith “Ruti” Rutan Beaver and Washington Counties, 1870-1875; Allegheny, 1889-1893

Early Life:

James Smith “Ruti” Rutan born May 29, 1838, Perry Township, Harrison (Carroll) County, Ohio, son of Alexander and Sarah Rutan; attended public schools, Richmond (Ohio) College, Beaver Academy; teacher; attorney, Beaver County bar, 1861; publisher, Beaver Argus; married Eliza M. Cox Rutan; died Allegheny City, June 18, 1892, Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, interment Beaver Cemetery and Mausoleum, Beaver, Beaver County, Pennsylvania.

Early Career:

Enlisted, November 9, 1861, 1st Lieutenant, Company F, 101st Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, discharged July 18, 1862.

Pennsylvania Politics:

Elected, district attorney of Beaver County, 1862, reelected 1865.  

Beaver County Republican committee and chair, 1866-1869.

Delivered U.S. Grant’s presidential electoral count, Congress, 1868

Elected, Pennsylvania State Senate, Beaver and Washington Counties 1870-1875, member Constitutional Reform, Finance, Speaker of the Senate, 1872; member of the 1873 Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention.

President, delegate, Republican State Convention, 1872, 1874.

Delegate, Republican National Convention, Exposition Hall, Cincinnati, Ohio June 14–16, 1876.

Appointed, United States Marshall, Consul to Cardiff, Consul to Florence, declined both, 1876.

Appointed, Collector of Port of Pittsburgh 1876-1881.

Appointed United States Marshal of Western Pittsburgh 1882-1885.

Elected, Pennsylvania State Senate, Allegheny County, 1887- 1891, member, Banks, Legislative Apportionment and Congressional Apportionment.  

Cited:

Smull’s Legislative Hand Book, (1875) Smull, J.A., Biographical Sketches of Senators, page 602, 606-608.

Smull’s Legislative Hand Book, (1888) Cochran, T.B., Members of the Senate of Pennsylvania, page 645, 671, 766-768.